Modelling and Simulation of a Four Wheel Plugged in Electric Vehicle (PEV)

Abstract

Electric vehicles (EVs) are becoming promising alternative energy

sources to be the remedy for the challenging environmental

problems (greenhouse emissions, air pollution and petrol

dependency) and sustainable transport systems. Pure or Plugged-

in electric vehicles (PEVs) use batteries to store the energy that will

be transformed into mechanical power by electric motor(s) only, i.

e., internal combustion engine (ICE) is not present. Pure electric

vehicles may adopt two (or four) in-wheel motors in their

powertrains. In this case, every motor is driven by a dedicated

power converter that must control wheel’s speed and torque. As

expected, the simplification of the mechanical design is attained at

the expense of increased complexity of the power electronics and

controllers. This research therefore focus on the mathematical

modelling of the four wheel plugged-in electric vehicle. The

mathematical modelling is obtained through hard modelling

methods. The dynamic model simulation is carried out and then

verified using a computer aided computer software design

(CACSD) i.e. the Simulink block diagram interface in the MATLAB

development environment. The resulting output will significantly

provide an in depth performance/behavior of the system, and

consequently give an avenue for system performance control and

optimization.